Various recreational activities have gained in popularity as additional leisure time has become available to people. Among the more popular activities are those involving aquatic sports and recreation. With the advent of the internal combustion engine, the relatively small powered boat or watercraft became feasible. However, it has not been until relatively recently that advances in the internal combustion engine have resulted in such engines sufficiently small and light to efficiently propel a small watercraft designed to carry only one or two persons and affording little or no protection from the elements.
Many people enjoy using such watercraft, but even with the development of relatively small engines, such craft typically weigh several hundred pounds and are powered by engines developing on the order of fifty horsepower or perhaps more. Such watercraft are high performance vehicles, and require a trailer and/or two or more persons to transfer the craft from shore to water and back. Moreover, such craft are relatively costly and require a relatively large amount of fuel. In addition, as noted above this type of craft is of relatively high performance and there is little opportunity for training novice operators of such craft with a smaller, lighter and lower powered craft.
What is needed is a small, lightweight watercraft intended for the use of a single adult operator, or perhaps two younger persons, and powered by a smaller and lighter engine than has been heretofore installed in such craft. The engine should preferably be equipped with a suitable drive train and other ancillary equipment, and should be capable of being easily modified and installed in the watercraft. The engine and power train should be readily available and relatively inexpensive when compared to existing power systems currently used in such watercraft. The watercraft itself should be designed so as to advantageously use such a readily available engine and power train and therefore be of relatively small size and light weight.